Efficient Power Factor Monitoring

By Author: SamJacob Thomas
Total Articles: 40
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Power Quality is a measure of how well a system supports reliable operation of its loads. It is an integral factor with respect to any electronic device. Thereby, monitoring the power quality becomes a must irrespective of the scenario. Also, there needs to be a constant check on the Power Quality(PQ) records so as to know what is it that may be responsible for the changes or fluctuations in the power factor.

With this in mind, a single phase voltage recorder for simple systems can be a helpful tool to monitor the voltage and a power logger or power Analyzer can help power factor monitoring.Power quality parameters including RMS average, transients, flicker, and harmonics can all be efficiently and conveniently supervised with a voltage recorder. Whether it is a commercial, industrial and residential setup, these recorders are capable of detecting and thus helping solve ...
... any kind of electrical disturbance.

Poor quality of power not only causes damage to equipment but also does not let the working equipment perform to its ideal efficiency. Thus, it is seen to cause a huge loss in productivity quantitatively as well as qualitatively. Hence, power factor monitoring is very important to extract optimal performance out of your devices.

The harmonicsand transients are the parameters to judge power quality and they can be accurately recorded with the help of a voltage recorder. These recorders can also help find out if the adjustable speed drives (ASD’s) used are the victims or culprits of poor PQ.

The type of converters or rectifiers used in an ASD can have a lot of effect on the PQ parameters like an SCR (silicon controlled rectifier) or a regular Diode converter. These changes in PQ can be efficiently caught by the voltage recorders and thus help find the culprit of reduced power quality.

The digital power meter is an alternative to the normal voltage recorder and that to a comparatively efficient and handy one. It can show digital readings of the Power factor but at the same time also show graphs of the harmonic spectrum to know the exact power quality and complete analysis of the True Power Factor(TPF) and the Displacement power factor(DPF).Most of them come with a color screen with a clamp-on feature that makes them portable.

Power quality is a very important factor everywhere electricity is involved, so supervising it is a necessity that must be catered to and these powermeters help answer this need.